The present invention relates to a process for treating a tooth, and in particular its root parts located under the gums with the aid of a dental instrument, having a scraping tool provided with a drive incorporated into the instrument handle for imparting to the tool a reciprocating movement, as well as to a dental instrument for performing the process.
Apart from the hand-operated instruments used for the odontopathy treatment, particularly periodontosis and which are referred to as scalers, use is also made of scalers, which are equipped with a motor drive and in which a reciprocating movement is imparted to the scraping means or curette located at the end of the handle. The motordriven instruments make the work of the dentist or surgeon much easier to do as compared with hand-operated instruments. The scraping curette, with the edge of which the tooth is cleaned, is moved along the root of the tooth under the gums, and under pressure it is suddenly moved in the direction of the tooth masticatory surface.
The motor-driven scaler has proved to be satisfactory in operation, because it is possible to efficiently treat the surface parts of the tooth root, so that on the root surfaces are formed smooth, clean and slightly concave surface portions.
Recent research has revealed that it is desired to smooth these minor depressions. The known instruments cannot be used for such smoothing purposes and consequently hand-operated instruments have to be used.